The number of UK-bound African and Asian migrants in Calais has dropped by two thirds this winter as unprecedented numbers have succeeded in dodging border police and sneaking into Britain.

On one day alone, Saturday January 17, 300 managed to gain entrance to the Channel Tunnel when chaos ensued after a truck caught fire, it emerged at the weekend.

Hundreds more have succeeded in stowing away on trucks which board ferries linking Calais to the Kent coast. Many more opt for soft touch French Channel ports like Ouistreham and Cherbourg where border controls are less stringent.

Waiting: Less than 1000 Africans and Asians are now estimated to be sleeping rough in squats and at three open air camps close to the ferry terminal at Calais

The homeless migrants pay Albanian people-smugglers hundreds of pounds to be ferried south of Calais and loaded into lorries at motorway rest areas .

Scores of migrants gained access to the ferry terminal in large numbers this winter when a winter storm blew down security fences and hundreds invaded truck car parks.

Camp: The homeless migrants in Calais pay Albanian people-smugglers hundreds of pounds to be ferried south of Calais and loaded into lorries at motorway rest areas

Pessimists at Calais predict that numbers of UK bound refugees will increase again to 300 plus during the spring and summer as new arrivals from Libya fleeing persecution by Islamic extremists start arriving .

Numbers increased dramatically last summer as waves of Eritreans and Ethiopians hit the French Channel coast and set their sights on the UK. There were violent scenes as knife- wielding Sudanese nationals clashed with Eritreans over territorial disputes .

Nord Littoral points to two main causes for the exodus . One is that 'more men and women are getting through' to the UK.

The other is that migrants disheartened by months of living in cold and squalid tents have opted to apply for asylum and have been transferred to state run hostels as far afield as Burgundy, hundreds of miles south of Calais.

A spokesman for the French Immigration department said, ' Since September 2014 more than 400 registered as applying for asylum and 45 percent of those have been given protection'.

Making a dash: Scores of migrants gained access to the ferry terminal in large numbers this winter when a winter storm blew down security fences and hundreds invaded truck car parks

At the beginning of the year when a day centre opened on the outskirts of Calais, numbers were estimated at around 2,500. There are now said to be fewer than 1,000 people living there

At the beginning of February 60 Africans were ferried southwards from Calais and put up in a former Gendarmerie at the town of Pouilly en Auxois in Burgundy south east of Paris.

Pouilly is just one of dozens of villages all over France which have been designated to accommodate asylum seekers whilst their applications are being processed .

Residents of the small village have protested to local mayor Bernard Milloir at the influx of Sudanese, Eritreans and Ethiopians. Monsieur Milloir called the complains 'nauseating'.

Calais mayor Natacha Bouchart welcomed the decrease in migrants numbers at the port attributing the rise in numbers seeking French asylum to the opening of the day centre and installation of CCTV cameras.

In January she called on aid groups to evacuate the filthy Jungle 2 squat and move migrants to a municipal camp nearby.

Last year Madame Bouchart threatened to open a floodgate of migrants to swamp Britain and called for the UK border to be moved back to Dover to ease congestion at her port.

Work is currently in progress at the Jules Ferry day centre to prepare overnight accommodation for women and children only due to be available at the end of the month.